It's called discernment. The UMC as a denomination is leading its people away from God. Are there good people in the UMC? Of course there are. There are good Communists, too, but that doesn't make Communism any less subject to a blanket condemnation.
The UMC is a shrinking denomination and will continue to shrink as more and more decent people become aware of the non-Christian practices promulgated by the various conferences and Bishops.
As far as apostasy and heresy goes, here's one example:
The UMC promotes homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle to its membership. That is heresy.
They also promote this lifestyle to people who are coming into knowledge of the faith...creating a witness that is in clear contradiction to Scripture: this is apostasy.
If the UMC ceased calling itself a Christian faith then my charges would be empty and I'd let it go. Buddhist, for example, are not heretics or apostates since they do not profess to be Christian.
Since the UMC is more and more resembling the Bahai faith I can't imagine it will be too many years before a General Conference dissassociates itself with Christianity and Scripture since both are inherently intolerant of sin.
"Somehow, I'm not in the least bit surprised. It is certainly how you come across on this board. I hope you're not this way in person, or you risk a fat lip."
By the way, I am exactly this way in person. I've said nothing to you that I have not said IN PERSON to the two aforementioned UMC Bishops. And do note that neither have them has ever told me I was wrong.
Interestingly enough I've endured threats of violence mostly from the most liberal and "tolerant" people in the UMC. Your 'fat lip' comment sounds typical. As for myself, I have NEVER threatened anyone in the UMC but have received such threats more times than I can count.
On the one occasion in 1994 when one of the "loving and tolerant" people actually did attack me he came at me with a chair. I took the chair from him and then dislocated his shoulder, tearing his rotator cuff, all without hitting him. The police took him to the hospital and then booked him and released him. It was that incident that was key in my leaving the church.
What precipitated his assault? I had dared to say that homosexuality was wrong and should not be an accepted practice in the church. More specifically, this man was teaching Sunday school children ages 6-8 about homosexuality and lesbianism and one of the parents had brought a complaint to me. I acted on it.
My particular congregation had been an Evangelical Brethren congregation prior to the UM in 1967 and was fairly conservative and evangelical. Evangelism is anaethema to the UMC and the pastor the District imposed on us in 1991 was a liberal, pro-homosexual, pacifist (except when it came to his family - then he wasn't a pacifist), and vehemently anti-evangelical saying that Christians had no right to support missions or missionaries.
This is what caused me to become militant in defense of my faith and it also was key in my conversion from a life-long liberal to a committed conservative.
Anymore, I have no patience for you people. If you want to threaten me, have at it. Be advised that if you are so inclined to actually carry through with such a threat you do so at your own peril.
And why is it so hard for a bunch of people who get mad at me for saying how un-Christian they are to act Christian? I expect mature, grown-up people to handle themsleves without playground antics and I expect Christians to act like Christians - especially to each other.
So the threats and etc. I have received from UMC atheists, liberals, lesbians, and (ironically) one pacifist are all just so much more proof to me that you are not a Christian faith anymore.
It'd be much more fun for you to elevate your discourse above mere threats to perhaps discussing with me why the UMC calls itself a Christian faith whilst simultaneously rejecting 2000 years of Christian belief.
But there I go again being a hard-hearted and mean-spirited conservative who wants to talk about such trivialities as facts, faith, and Scripture.